Dohány Street Syangogue, Budapest

Found at the traditional entrance to the Jewish Quarter is the Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest of such buildings in Europe and the second largest in the world. The spectacular synagogue is a popular tourist destination but at the same time it is an important historical memento as well: Dohány Street marked the border of the Ghetto during World War II.

The building was designed by the architect of the Leopoldstadt Synagogue in Vienna, Ludwig Förster and the interior was designed by Frigyes Feszl. The Moorish Revival style building was finished in 1859. It was built on the same site where the house of Tivadar Herzl, the founder of Zionism once stood. The 53 meters long and 26 meters tall building seats 3000 people. The two domed towers are 44 meters tall each. As there is a rule that synagogues must face towards Jerusalem, the Dohány Street Synagogue stands in a somewhat unusual angle to the street.

Entrance of the Dohány Street Synagogue Photo: Harangozó Ádám, funiQ

The Synagogue was built built for the Neolog Jewry of Budapest which is the reason why the Torah reading table is found in the front, men and women can pray in the same room, though separated, and the prayed is in Hungarian instead of the traditional Yiddish.

A complementary building in the same style, called the Heroes' Temple, was built next to the synagogue in 1931. It commemorates the Hungarian Jewish victims of World War I.

Back of the synagogue and the Heroes' Temple Photo: Harangozó Ádám, funiQ

It is also the location of the Jewish Museum which presents an exhibition on the celebrations, traditions, relics of Judaism and about the Holocaust and the Ghetto in Hungary.

Hungarian Jewish Musem Photo: Harangozó Ádám, funiQ

In the garden, we can see the Holocaust memorial named The Tree of Life. It is also the place of the cemetery for those who perished in the Ghetto.